Best amplifier in the world!

[jerryo]

With the enormous amount of skill, experience, intelligence and shared knowledge that exists on this forum, how come as a group you have not collectively created/designed the best amplifier in the world?
When I say "best amplifier in the world" I mean the best possible topology that gives the highest objective and measured sound quality, and that can be scaled for output power and handle all but the most difficult loads.
I know, I know there are a million different opinions on this, but the largest electronic companies in the world will never be able to pool the resources together that are available on this forum for r&d (unless of course that is what they are doing.........data mining!)
Does everyone just disagree about what would be the best amp in the world because of their own subjective opinions? Will the argument never be settled or is there a new technology waiting in the wings that will sweep away everything that we currently believe to be state of the art?

[event horizon]

Originally Posted by jerryo

Does everyone just disagree about what would be the best amp in the world because of their own subjective opinions?

I should imagine that is indeed the case yes

However in my opinion it's got to be class A & efficient which kind of makes things a little more difficult, but not impossible

[Nelson Pass]

This being the entertainment business, There is no
such thing as the best amplifier, just as there is no
best wine or best car.

There is a best wife, however, but she is taken.

[FdW]

Originally Posted by Nelson Pass

This being the entertainment business, There is no

There is a best wife, however, but she is taken.

Yes, mine to ...

[jacq.]

No you guys are in the field, mine's the best.

[mell0wman]

Originally Posted by FdW

Yes, mine to ...

...so there is no best wife, as it seems

[amp-guy]

best amplifier in the world is the one you just fired up for the first time!

[Kurt von Kubik]

To agree about something like the best amplifier design, you first have to define the goal,

If the worlds best amp is the one with the sound you like the best, then we probably will have millions of best amps sounding pretty different.

If the goal instead is to create the amplifier that reproduces the input signal to a higher voltage level as accurate as possible at all into any realistic load, we might get close to some agreement on this issue after all.

Which technology and design will be the superior one could be exiting to find out.

My bets are classic class A with discrete NFB design, challenged only by class D with huge amounts of negative feedback, but still sounding pretty different from each other.

[sumaudioguy]

Yah what he said- define the goal.

I like the sound up where the conductor stands at the podium. Some other guy here has front row center as his signature. Then there is that guy who sits center section about row 5-10. Last but not least is the guy in the back with the planar speakers. Add to that a guy who likes the "musicality" of single ended triodes...distortion. He likes it so it suits him well.

So I am the clarity guy. That little speaker you see there on the left... 14 amplifiers for that one cabinet. Yes clarity and low distortion the likes of which few have heard. But that shoe sure does not fit everyone.

I remember listening to the Audio Innovations tube amp. Wow it sounded good. Good bass, tonal balance... it seemed to have everything going for it so I left it in the system for several days. Then I was listening to the music and the violin was so lush, so beautiful, so magical I just could not believe it having "played" with expensive ($$$$$) violins a lot. So I switched back to my "clarity and smoothness" solid state amplifier. Oh, 5 violins. You can argue with that but there is not percentage in it. My goal is clarity with smoothness- standing where the conductor stands. Hearing what the conductor hears. If there is someone who tells you the conductor balances and directs so the sound is good in the audience then that guy has been fooled. The conductor makes it for where the conductor stands. I like it too.

[martinbls]

There is another serious drawback concerning this issue: Just take the "best cd-player", the "best amplifier", the "best loudspeakers" and the "best cables". Connect everything properly, let it warm up, and you have a great chance that the whole thing sounds like crap.
Why? Because it is THE CHAIN what matters, not the single component. It's a matter of system synergy. One source might be absolutely great with a certain amp, but not necessarily with another amp, and so on...

That's at least my experience.